Hey all, Sam here.
I admit that I went into a little bit of a shutdown in the days after Gen Con. Between all the panels, the running around the convention center and Indianapolis in general, and the travel distance….I needed the time to rest, so I let my little blog streak die.
And, I’ll be completely honest: today’s post might be a little bit of a short one, but I’m hoping it is still a nice one.
Through my numerous panels at the Gen Con Writer’s Symposium, I got to listen to tips, tricks, and advice from numerous authors, editors, agents, and publishing industry pros. I ended up taking 31 pages of notes over the course of four days, and some of those notes were things I put a star next to because they felt super impactful and important to me. So I thought I would share some of those with all of you today.
Okay…first, this isn’t a quote, but I found it interesting that several of the panelists in the Worldbuilding for TTRPG Systems panel mentioned how in the early stages of writing novels they make character sheets using various TTRPG systems to help understand each character better. Character sheets have spots for personality traits, skills, languages known, weapons training, general statistics, background, and more. I love that, because I do like having character sheets to give me the basic overview of each of my characters.
If you write, you ARE a writer. Whether that’s a novel, a short story, a poem, a paragraph, a sentence. It’s the writing that matters, not the publishing.
Get used to giving your words voice and space. These words deserve to be read and to be heard out loud.
At the end of the day, writing is a choice.
You are allowed to ask for help.
Once a rule or boundary is set for yourself with your writing, you need to enforce it. If you aren’t making space for your writing then you are helping the writer’s block.
Don’t stop. Keep going. Just write through the first draft. In your second draft you can readjust those moments you were questioning before.
Follow your joy and your energy with your writing. Nobody else is watching your process. It’s okay to skip part of a scene or chapter until another time. Embrace the imperfection of it all.
Let go of your expectations and just have fun. Writing can be fun. You get to play with these words and characters and worlds. Follow your joy.
The most important day is the day after perfection breaks. The most important thing is returning to your writing. It’s going to be hard, but, you know what–it’s hero time.
Remember: writing is the only necessary act of finishing a book. Editing is the necessary act of selling a book.
Loving your writing can be a process, but it is totally worth it.
People are allowed to have bad taste; don’t sweat the negative reviews.
You are in a relationship with your writing. There will be good days and bad days.
Why do we create? To make people remember and to make people feel.
If you write at all then you ARE a writer.
Art is an act of self-love. You cannot love yourself more than by creating art that you want to create.
Show up for the work…even if the muse does not.
All right, well that’s it for my quotes from the Gen Con Writer’s Symposium. I hope these quotes are as inspirational and aspirational for you as they were for me.
That’s all from me for today, but I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
Free State of Geek 